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Central Railway zone

Zone of Indian Railways From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Central Railway zone
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Central Railway (abbreviated CR) is one of the 19 zones of Indian Railways.[1] Its headquarters are located at Mumbai.[2] It has the distinction of operating the first passenger railway line in India, which opened from Mumbai to Thane on 16 April 1853 (172 years ago) (1853-04-16).

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History

The railway zone was formed on 5 November 1951 by grouping several government-owned railways, including the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, the Scindia State Railway of the former princely state of Gwalior, Nizam State Railway, Wardha Coal State Railway and the Dholpur State Railway.[3][4]

The Central Railway zone formerly included large parts of Madhya Pradesh and part of southern Uttar Pradesh, which made it the largest railway zone in India in terms of area, track mileage and staff. These areas became the new West Central Railway zone in April 2003.

The Central Railway General Manager's official residence (erstwhile GIPR agent's residence), 'Glenogle'-a Grade II-B heritage bungalow, is located on Bhausaheb Hire Marg (Mount Pleasant Road), adjacent to the Maharashtra Chief minister's official residence 'Varsha' in Malabar Hill, Mumbai.

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Routes

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Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Mumbai One of the busiest Railway Stations in India. It is also a World Heritage Site

Main Lines in the Central Railway zone

One of the oldest and important railway project of central railway zone was Kalyan-Ahmednagar railway project, which was in planning stage since British regime. It was referred to as 3rd ghat project. A survey was carried out in 1973, 2000, 2006, 2014 etc, and the project was in the Railways Board pink book in 2010, but the project stalled. The alignment length of this project was 184 km, and it could have been the shortest route for Marathwada, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The major challenge for this project is 18.96 km long tunnel in the Malshej Ghat section.[5] Malshej Kruti Samiti is pursuing for Kalyan-Ahmednagar railway project. The Kalyan-Murbad section, which is the first phase of this project, is already under survey stage.[6]

Branch lines of the Central Railway zone

  • Vasai Road–Roha line
  • Harbour line (Mumbai Suburban Railway)
  • Trans-Harbour line (Mumbai Suburban Railway)
  • Port line (Mumbai Suburban Railway)
  • Panvel-Karjat branch line
  • Panvel-JNPT branch line
  • Karjat-Khopoli branch line (part of Mumbai Suburban railway)
  • Daund-Manmad branch line
  • Chalisgaon-Dhule branch line
  • Manmad-Secunderabad branch line
  • Daund-Baramati branch line
  • Puntamba-Shirdi branch line
  • Ahmadnagar-Beed-Parli Vaijnath branch line (operational upto Amalner Bhandyache as of May 2025)
  • Lonand-Phaltan branch line
  • Miraj-Kolhapur branch line
  • Miraj-Kurduwadi branch line
  • Kurduwadi-Latur Road branch line
  • Jalamb-Khamgaon branch line
  • Badnera-Narkhed branch line
  • Badnera-Amravati branch line
  • Wardha-Yavatmal-Nanded branch line (operational only upto Kalamb as of June 2025)
  • Amla-Chhindwara branch line (excluding Chhindwara Jn.)

Connections

Central railway zone connects to other Zones of Indian railways as at:

Western Railway Zone

Mumbai WR division

Konkan Railway Zone

South Central Railway zone

Secunderabad railway division
Guntakal Railway Division
Nanded railway division

South East Central Railway zone

Nagpur SEC railway division

South Western Railway zone

Hubballi railway division

Western Central Railway zone

Bhopal division

Matheran Hill Railway

Constructed in 1907, the narrow-gauge Matheran Hill Railway connects Neral on the Mumbai-Chennai main line with the hill station of Matheran in the Western Ghats, east of Mumbai. Neral is linked to Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus by frequent suburban trains. Steam engines have now been replaced by diesel locomotives. The route is noted for its sharp curves.

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Divisions

Organisation

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The central railway covers a large part of the state of Maharashtra and small part of Southern Madhya Pradesh and North-Eastern Karnataka. It is organized into five divisions: Mumbai, Bhusawal, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune. The details of the network by division are as follows[7]

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Central Railway Headquarters at CSMT.

Mumbai Division

Main article: Mumbai CR railway division
  • Mumbai CSMT-Dadar-Kurla-Thane
  • Thane-Diva Jn-Kalyan
    • Diva Jn-Panvel-Roha
      • Panvel-Jasai-Uran
        • Jasai-JNPT
    • Diva Jn-Vasai Road
  • Kalyan Jn-Kasara-Igatpuri (Inclusive)
  • Kalyan Jn-Karjat Jn-Lonavala (Inclusive)
    • Neral Jn-Matheran (narrow-gauge)
    • Karjat Jn-Panvel
    • Karjat Jn-Khopoli

Malshej Kriti Samiti is following for Kalyan-Ahmednagar railway project. Kalyan-Murbad section which is first phase of this project is already under survey stage.[6]

Pune Division

Main article: Pune Railway Division

Nagpur Division

Main article: Nagpur CR railway division
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Nagpur Railway Station

Solapur Division

Main article: Solapur Railway Division
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Solapur railway station

Bhusawal Division

Main article: Bhusawal Railway Division
  • Manmad-Indore (project scrapped)
  • Bhusawal-Badnera-Nagpur (exclude)
  • Bhusawal-Khandwa-Itarsi (exclude)
  • Jalgaon-Nandurbar-Udhna (exclude)
  • Chalisgaon-Dhule
  • Khamgaon - Jalamb
  • Pachora-Jamner
  • Manmad-Aurangabad (exclude)
  • Manmad-Daund (exclude)
  • Mandmad-Nasik-Igatpuri (exclude)
  • Akola-Nanded (exclude)

The number of stations category-wise under these five railway divisions under the Central Railway Zones are as follows (as of 2008) : A-1 : 7, A : 20, B : 10, C : 80, D : 45, E : 221, F : 93, Total : 476[10]

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Ongoing projects

New lines

  • Solapur Jn -Tuljapur- Osmanabad. (New Rail Line survey completed but work yet to start)
  • Nanded - Yavatmal - Wardha. (Work under process)
  • Ashti-Parli Vaijnath line (work under progress). Ahmednagar-Ashti 67 km completed. (Project :- Ahmedanagar- Beed - Parli)
  • Phaltan - Baramati (approved, but work yet to start)
  • Kolhapur-Vaibhavwadi line (survey under progress)
  • Aurangabad-Shani shingnapur-Ahmednagar line (survey completed, but work yet to start)
  • Khamgaon-Jalna (survey completed, but work yet to start)
  • Latur-Latur Road-Ahmedpur-Nanded (survey completed, but work yet to start)
  • Latur Road-Jalkot-Mukhed-Biloli-Bodhan (announced but not yet taken up)
  • Latur-Ausa-Nilanga-Omerga-Aland-Gulbarga (survey under progress)

Doubling

  • Bhigvan-Gulbarga (Doubling completed)
  • Pune-Miraj-Londa-Hubli (Doubling in progress)
  • Panvel-Karjat
  • Karjat-Khopoli

Tripling

  • Kalyan-Kasara
  • Kalyan-Karjat
  • Sewagram Jn-Balharshah Jn

Quadrupling

  • Nagpur-Wardha
  • Manmad-Igatpuri [11]

Hexupling

  • Mumbai CSMT-Kalyan
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Trains

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CR MEMU Rakes built by BEML, Bangalore
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CR MEMU Rakes parked alongside Suranjan Das Road

Some of the major trains operated by Central Railway zone are as follows:

More information Number, Train Name ...
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Loco sheds

See also

References

External links

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